TIME and NATURE in the POETRY of NIYI OSUNDARE Francis
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WRITING NIGERIA: TIME AND NATURE IN THE POETRY OF NIYI OSUNDARE Francis Chukwunwike Anolue A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Johannesburg, 2020 i ABSTRACT This thesis is a critical evaluation of the poetry of the Nigerian writer Niyi Osundare. It investigates varied ways in which time and nature are thematised in the poetry under study. The research is guided by an understanding of the interconnectivity of the two concepts it investigates. It is conceived as a deep and kaleidoscopic study of the output of one writer. As part of the design to make it a deep study, its scope covers only Nigeria, although it freely draws examples from diverse countries to advance its arguments. Time is by nature an abstract concept, and one of the benefits of studying it with nature is that the latter gives the former a grounding that renders it apprehensible. The study is theoretically framed by Bakhtinian theory complemented by various strands of ecocritical theory, especially apocalypse and animist theories. In respect of the theory of animism, I apply it on the Yoruba world which Osundare privileges, foregrounding its temporal and environmental ramifications. Its temporal ramifications brought to the surface include the spiritual forces in the Yoruba world and their roles in the lives of human subjects, the difference between time and eternity, how spiritual forces navigate time and space, and the role of animist consciousness in environmental preservation. The thesis also looks at Nigeria as a geographical space in this geologic age, alternatively studying the age as the Anthropocene and as the Capitalocene. By so doing, it throws into relief issues like inequality, strife and multifaceted forms and rapid pace of environmental decadence. ii DEDICATION The memory of the just is blessed. The Holy Bible, Proverbs 10: 7 I dedicate this thesis to the memory of my mama, Mrs Christiana Okenu Anolue, with love and gratitude. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS One of the genres I read and enjoyed in the course of writing this thesis was creation stories, and the archetype underlying them all is the transformation of chaos to cosmos. Completing the thesis gives me that feeling of creating order out of chaos and I thank all those who made it possible. I thank my supervisor, Prof Dan Ojwang. I am grateful to him for the patience and thoroughness with which he has guided me through the process of writing this thesis, and for all else that he kindly did to see that the research became a success. Without his assistance, I could not have been offered admission for the programme in the first place. I remember those many months when I was applying for admission from Nigeria and the evaluation of my previous qualifications by the South African Qualification Authority (SAQA) ran into several hitches. He went out of his way to ensure that the process was completed. Without that, I could not have embarked on the programme. I thank him for that act of kindness. I also appreciate his colleagues in the Department of African Literature, Prof Isabel Hofmeyr and Dr Danai Mupotsa. I thank them for the various forms of assistance they extended to me in order to facilitate the research. Equally, I thank my proposal readers, Prof Eric Worby of the Department of Anthropology, and Dr Kirk Sides of the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER). The thesis has benefitted richly from their insights and from the texts they recommended. Similarly, for the texts they recommended as well as other fruitful suggestions they proffered, I also thank my internal examiner, Prof Elsie Cloete of the School of Education, and my external examiners, Prof Russell West-Pavlov of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Global South Studies, University of Tubingen, Germany, and Dr Senayon Olaoluwa of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. I appreciate my employer, Bauchi State University, Gadau, Nigeria for granting me a study fellowship. From the University, I thank the following senior colleagues, past and present, for the various roles they played in facilitating my PhD studies: the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Auwalu Uba, his predecessor, Prof Ezzeldin Muktar Abdurahman; Prof Garba Kawu Daudu, Prof Saleh Abdu, Prof Asabe Sadiya Mohammed, Dr Auwal Amba and Dr Ahmed Tanimu Jibril. For kindly serving as my guarantor in respect of the study fellowship, I am also grateful to Malam Musa Jimra, former Principal, Government College Azare, Bauchi State. iv I am grateful to the immediate past Registrar of the University of Jos, Mr Jilli Dandam for his intervention when a document I needed from the University when he was still in office was proving hard to secure. I also thank Mrs Kauna Dauda Suyibam of the University Registry for her assistance in the same matter. From the Department of English of the same university, many lecturers also offered me one form of help or another in the course of my application for admission, and when I had subsequently commenced studies. For that reason I am grateful to Prof John Adeiyongo, Prof Kanchana Ugbabe, Prof Amaka Azuike and Prof Uwemedimo Enobong Iwoketok. For a similar reason, I am grateful to Prof Chike Okoye of the Department of English, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria. I appreciate the Harold and Doris Tothill Foundation for the study grant it awarded to me in 2018. I equally thank the University of the Witwatersrand for the Postgraduate Merit Award given to me for three consecutive years, with all the benefits attached to it. I am also grateful to the School of Literature, Language and Media and the Department of African Literature for the various grants they offered me which enabled me to register for my studies for several years. Thank you too to Mrs Kathleen Ripamonti of the School of Literature, Language and Media for all the time she spent doing the relevant paperwork in respect of the grants. My thanks also go to you my sisters, Mrs Ngozi Abbey, Mrs Ego Okafor and Mrs Uche Dumaka, for your financial support and prayers. And to Uncle William Okafor, thank you for being a mentor. I also appreciate my fellow PhD students in the Department of African Literature, Rangarirayi Mapanzure, Femi Eromosele and Sakiru Adebayo for all the various forms of support I received from them. I am grateful to my brother Nonso Afulukwe for financial support. Thank you too, Hope Uba, Nkeiru Nwoye, Habu Kakudi and Peter Ikebudu for the various supportive roles you played. To all the members of Rehoboth Ministries International, Simmonds Street, Johannesburg – the church where I have been privileged to be worshipping all these years of my studies – I am grateful for the family feeling. Most importantly, I thank Almighty God Whose grace is the secret behind everything that has gone well with me in the course of writing this thesis. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration i Abstract ii Dedication iii Acknowledgements iv Table of Contents vi Chapter One: Introduction 1 Nature and Progress 1 Aim 2 Rationale 6 Scope and Limitation of the Study 8 Research Methodology 8 Time, Nature and Theory 9 Chapter Summary 28 Chapter Two: The Sacred and the Profane: Time and Nature as Autobiography 29 Introduction 29 Sacred and Profane Nature and Time 30 Sacred Roots and Cultivation of Environmental Ethics 39 Dream Time, Sacred Forces and the Compression of Time and Space 46 Conclusion 60 Chapter Three: Animist Realism: The Spoken Word and the Creation of an Enchanted and Living Earth 62 Introduction 62 Creation and the Word 63 Creation as Procreation 86 Creation as Craftsmanship 96 Conclusion 100 vi Chapter Four: Nigeria and the Anthropocene 101 Introduction 101 The Forest and the Anthropocene 103 The Desert Condition 113 The Rainmaker and the Rainy Season 117 Natural Disasters and Ecological Memory 120 Eco-419: Ecolocalism as Ecoparochialism 125 Conclusion 138 Chapter Five: Living in the Capitalocene: A Nigerian Example 139 Introduction: 139 Man of Money Debates Man of Work 140 Ikoyi and Ajegunle: Two Faces of One City 176 Conclusion 181 Chapter Six: Concluding Reflection 182 Works Cited 189 vii CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION ...in Maya, space also means time. Anthony F. Aveni, Empires of Time ‘No-one has yet observed a place except at a time, nor yet a time except at a place.’ Russell West-Pavlov, Temporalities Nature and Progress The nursery school I attended is in the premises of an Anglican church in my hometown, on the same land that used to be an evil forest belonging to the village before Christianity made its foray there. The village had offered the forest to the Church Missionary Society when they requested a place to site their place of worship. It was this forest of no return that those afflicted by abominable diseases were cast into and left to die, and also freaks such as twin babies. The small congregation of Anglicans cleared and built their church there, and ever since, twins have been joining other people in worship in the church. The church later built the nursery school and a primary school also. For my cohort of pupils in the school, our break periods and other leisure hours were spent playing in the courtyard of the church, especially a lawn in the frontage that was the size of a football field. The lawn was home to grasshoppers, of varying ages and sizes and species. I remember the music of nature that the lawn produced; I remember the gentle chirping of grasshoppers as they basked in the sun, and their soft whirr as they flew around. I remember our excitement as we chased after big grasshoppers, as we caught them and removed their forewings before throwing them up in the air again, as we pursued them and caught them and removed their hindlegs before stretching our hands and throwing them into the air with all our power again, as we dived to catch them and they beat us and flew up and perched on another spot on the lawn.